10 November

Around this part of the country, today is remembered as a somber anniversary: the day a “modern” ship went down, taking the entire crew to the bottom of a very big lake.

While some of the observances over the years seem a bit macabre (a CD with “amazing” vocalists?), it is something that deserves to be remembered. This documentary was on the radio again last night, and the story can definitely draw you in.

Lake Superior is amazing and beautiful, but it can also be an awe-inspiring force, capable of cold destruction. Can you imagine a lake with 30 foot waves? “Green water” coming over your boat’s deck? It can happen here.

I’ve spent some time on Lake Superior in small, government boats, and have felt a bit of Her power. I’ve lived alone at a lighthouse, lonely outposts built to prevent shipwrecks in another era. I am oddly fascinated by maritime history, and have purported to “remember” shipwrecks while playing a character from Lake Superior lighthouse history.

I don’t consciously remember the Edmund Fitzgerald, but the story always gives me pause. The power of nature is something to be reckoned with...


Edited later to add: OK, I still found the ads on the radio for the "great new musical" disturbing last year, but the Gales of November CD description has won me over.

"At the heart of it is the Great Lake Superior: a serene beauty, a fearsome force, a giver and taker of life."

I think that sums it up very well.